I’m reading the book by that title, by 15+ year veteran war correspondent Chris Hedges, a harrowing and horrifying exercise in confessional self-therapy of the many ethnic wars he’s witnessed in person. Here in video he’s even more bitter and negative than his book, in which he is morose but level-headed. He’s a war philosopher [...]
Archive for the 'War' Category
Jewish prayer = Jihad?
The local Chabad newsletter sent me this gem today: Our Sages point out that the Hebrew verb vayigash (“and he approached “) is employed by the Torah to describe a person entering into battle as well as one engaging in prayer. Indeed, use of this word often implies a combination of the two — an [...]
Dec 9th, 2010 Judaism and War 4 Comments
I’m saying what Michael Walzer is saying
Eminent political philosopher Michael Walzer says what I’ve been saying about the flotilla, Israeli public opinion and the conduct of states: Walzer repeatedly appeals to Israelis – both the citizen committed to a shared social project and the sovereign committed to high-level international politics. “I think the sense that people have been expressing in the [...]
Jul 28th, 2010 Israel and War 0 Comments
An addendum to my review of Joel Chasnoff’s “188th Crybaby Brigade”
My review of Joel Chasnoff’s humorous memoir, The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah, is now up on Jewschool. I really liked it. Israelis have an amazing sense of self-humor. Eretz Nehederet is their Saturday Night Live, a show that has portrayed Avigdor Lieberman as Darth Vader, the Palestinians as [...]
Apr 9th, 2010 Israel, Musings and War 2 Comments
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel: Report on IDF changes in policy during Gaza operation
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel released a report “No Second Thoughts: Changes in the IDF’s Combat Doctrine In Light of Operation Cast Lead.” The report explains how the IDF’s shift of priority from minimizing civilian casualties to minimizing IDF casualties constitutes deliberate harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure — in violation of international [...]
Jan 31st, 2010 Israel and War 0 Comments
Erev Hadash TV interview: Breaking the Silence supporter creams Im Tirtzu sloganeer
Rami Hoyberger debating the Im Tirtzu supporter here is like sandblasting a Saltine. Rami Hoyberger is an Israeli actor who’s signed onto the Rabbis for Human Rights petition for an independent investigation into the Cast Lead war in Gaza, as suggested is necessary by testimonies collected by Breaking the Silence. Im Tirtzu is a self-declared [...]
Jan 22nd, 2010 Israel and War 0 Comments
Mercaz Harav’s rules of just war: you can kill anyone
I’m a student of just war theories. They fascinate me. World War II and the Holocaust altered international law and consciousness on huge scales. The foundation of what is acceptable and what it not in warfare today is an attempt to prevent a World War III that would again kill countless civilians or fail to [...]
Dec 13th, 2009 Judaism and War 1 Comment
Gaza in the New Yorker
There’s something to be said that topics as complicated as the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations over Gaza can only be done justice in journalism as lengthy as The New Yorker. Well, here you go: Gaza, Gilad Shalit, Hamas, and Israel. The article is an amazing peice of first-hand journalism. Lawrence Wright not only interviews Hamas [...]
Nov 3rd, 2009 Israel and War 0 Comments
Killing Gazans like killing Germans
Netanyahu makes me so angry. My disgust with his approach to the conflict, to economics, to social needs and to international court of opinion spills over into my feelings for the State of Israel itself. I received in an email forward (the most trustworthy sources of information on earth, mind you) describing how Bibi Netanyahu, [...]
Oct 17th, 2009 Israel and War 0 Comments
We’re not trashing the IDF for fun, we’re saving her soul
Redacted from a comment I made on Jewschool which perhaps I’ve not made clear so far: Let’s take a step back: neither I nor Breaking the Silence are in a battle to tarnish the IDF wantonly. It may feel that way. But I’m not. Because I’ve worked so closely with the Breaking the Silence staff, their patriotism is [...]
Jul 20th, 2009 Israel, War and X-posted to Jewschool 0 Comments